Room temperature vegetable side dishes

Hi Food 52 community!

In about a month's time, I'm doing a seated dinner for 20 where I won't have access to a kitchen on site. What are some good, elevated - meaning not pasta/potato salad, vegetable-centric sides that can be served? What are your favorite vegetables to eat room temperature?

17 Comments

Spinach with raisins and pine nuts! I've made this one a million times and it's great served room temp. Steam 5# of spinach for 3 minutes, then cool and press out the water. Heat 2-3 T of olive oil in a saute pan, and saute 5-6 cloves of minced garlic until light brown, then add 1/4 to 1/3 cup each of pine nuts and raisins and saute a few more minutes. Add the spinach back in and toss to mix well. Cool and refrigerate until ready to serve (bring it out of the fridge for 30 minutes or so to come to room temp before serving).

I made the above amounts at a dinner for 12 and had way too much, so it should work for 20, especially with other vegetables on the table. Golden raisins pop more than brown ones, and you can also mix in some dried cranberries for color.

I made a similar dish using Swiss chard or kale for the greens, as they are a bit sturdier than spinach. Any nut or sunflower or pumpkin seeds will work, and I’ve used diced apricots when I didn’t have raisins or dried cranberries. Could also use cauliflower florets sautéed until lightly browned, and add chopped pimento olives to the nut/fruit mixture. Stir in some smoked paprika too!

I love asparagus and I add a bottle of seasoned artichoke hearts from Costco. Cook the asparagus in the drained liquid from bottle about 4 min in mw, then arrange veg/cooking liq in a pretty cassarole.

My work cafeteria had a recipe card for a celery-and-apple salad with a lemon vinaigrette. It sounded so light and refreshing and crisp I thought I’d make it for Thanksgiving dinner.
My dad also makes veggie salads in simple vinaigrette dressing; favorites are shredded Napa cabbage (you can add crushed peanuts, radishes, or a peanutty satè style dressing for a more Asian type dish); shredded green cabbage with a generous amount of black pepper; and thinly sliced English cucumbers with dill and paprika, garlic optional.

One of the sides I make for Thanksgiving that doesn't need to take up oven/stovetop space is a Brussels sprout slaw. I shave the sprouts (you can do this by hand with a knife or use the shredding blade of a food processor) then make a Caesar-inspired dressing but heavy on whole grain mustard. I also have quick-pickled vegetables (baby or cut carrots, pattypan or cut zucchini squash, cauliflower) by quickly heating light vinegar and olive oil (2:1 - heavier on vinegar) just to dissolve salt and sugar, with spices (fennel, crushed red pepper and bay are favorites) and pouring the hot mixture over the chosen veggies and letting marinate for an hour. Within this recipe is one of the mixes I use for pickling: https://food52.com/recipes/37952-zucchini-pronto. These can be served on their own or with toasts, or with toasts AND a whipped ricotta for a creamy-pickly bruschetta.

Voted the Best Reply!

This is an easy thing to do early in the day. I choose whatever looks good. I roast them on sheet pans and set them aside while I cook everything else. We love Brussels sprouts, multicolored carrots, cauliflower, lots of onions, and a big favorite is mixed mushrooms.